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“… when I refer to the music now as d&b, I never really considered it much then. I know that may sound strange, but I think we always operated as outsiders; I personally always felt on the outside looking in, which is why our Glider-State track was called so…”

“… I hadn’t done anything on Modern Urban Jazz since the ‘Emotions With Intellect’ LP, so to keep the ethos going, we decided that this would be an ideal collaboration by using the Modern Urban Jazz tag on the Creative Wax label. I don’t think either of our labels had been ones to follow trends and certainly at the time we were ripe for a more experimental sound…”

Modern Urban Jazz front cover (CWLP001, 1997)

Modern Urban Jazz 01 is a seminal compilation album, curated by Tony Justice Bowes and published by Creative Wax. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the official release, this is a retrospective account of the series of events that culminated in the realization of a brilliant project, which transcends genres and time. Titled after Justice’s eponymous record label, the compilation shares similar aesthetics and musical direction. An amalgamation of sounds with allusions to musique concrete; jazz noir, hip hop, funk, techno and electro instilled into drum & bass, with all contributing artists showcasing their musical backgrounds and creative influences, free of formulas, dancefloor reaction and genre constraints. Walking down a long, nostalgic and captivating trip down memory lane, this is a colourful and emotionally charged narrative, through the protagonists’ looking glass, filled with fond and distant memories that capture vividly the atmosphere of the mid-90s drum & bass scene.

“Ortem is a platform, which will be the home of fresh tracks, overseen by Metro. The emphasis will be stationed around drum and bass and electronic music delivered in all its innovative forms” – taken from the label’s inaugural press release

“A grid usually refers to two or more infinite sets of evenly-spaced parallel lines at particular angles to each other in a plane, or the intersections of such lines”

Ortem

Metro is the primary recording alias of Scott London. I have been following his production output since day one; from his collaborative work with long-time friend and recording partner Justice for Modern Urban Jazz and its subsidiary Muj for downtempo, breaks and broken beats to his regular appearances on a wide array of affiliated record labels.

“… with desolate, even mournful piano notes, oscillating effortlessly between the robust and the fragile, ‘Another Silent World’ is a streamlined, almost cinematic take in a drum & bass context …”

Black Rain (album front cover)

The fifth installment of the blog’s “Tracks I Wish I’d Written” series is about an obscure track, produced in 2003 by one of my all-time favourite musicians/artists. At first glance, Black Rain might not ring any bells, as it was a cross-genre, one-off musical project, which was active in the first half of the new millennium, but regrettably stayed under the radar. Nonetheless, the members of Black Rain have been two of the most respected and celebrated drum & bass artists; Robert Haigh and Sean O’Keeffe, widely known by their primary recording aliases Omni Trio and Deep Blue respectively.

“A passion for music that gradually escalated over time into a controlled obsession”

It has been three years since this blog went online, although its conception goes further back, so I eventually decided it’s about time I shared some thoughts about how it all started, as well as provide a retrospective account of the events that influenced the blog’s thematic basis. At the end of the feature, there is a quick walk-through the blog’s various categories/series and a brief background story behind each one of them.

“The music policy – as always with the label – is to be progressive and not be constrained by boundaries or genres” – Tony “Justice” Bowes

MPOD

The MPODseries is a critically acclaimed podcast series, published by the forward-thinking indie label Modern Urban Jazz (MJAZZ). Featuring a plethora of artists, producers, djs, collaborators, affiliates and friends of MJAZZ, coming from all over the globe, the MPODinstallments are characterized by an eclectic cross-genre selection, covering a wide palette of exhilarating and experimental electronic music, abolishing all musical stereotypes.

The Modernists is a highly acclaimed, collectible, limited edition, compilation series project released by the forward-thinking Modern Urban Jazz (MJAZZ) label. To the time of writing The Modernists series consists of four volumes (official release date of the 4th volume is the 22nd of July, 2013), featuring mainly artists and affiliates of the MJAZZ collective. An eclectic cross-genre selection, covering a wide palette of electronic bass music, from techno to deep drum and bass, with clear electro, house and hip-hop influences, every volume seems to be pushing the music boundaries even further.

Limited to strictly 100 copies per installment, with hand finished artwork and stickers or badges included, every release is a collectible; an approach that seems to be becoming more popular within drum and bass, rendering every physical copy unique and individual.

The fourth installment of the series is dedicated to one of the unsung heroes of the golden era of drum and bass Danny Coffey (aka Basic One, Blades, Tertius, Endemic Void, Slipstream and Strictly Rockers).